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Prose analysis of handmaids tale
Prose analysis of handmaids tale
Prose analysis of handmaids tale
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The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood follows the life of a Handmaid, Offred, in the days after the United States. An oppressive regime has taken over the United States, which is now called Gilead. Gilead is run by religious radicals who use fear to rule its people. Women, now stripped of many of their rights must live in a world where they are assigned to their roles by the government. Offred is a Handmaid whose main purpose of living is to bare the children for the man she is assigned. Being watched closely by the government as well as the Commanders wife, Offred must make choices that could cost her, her life or bring her some ease. Atwood uses symbols, characterization, and biblical allusion to show the reach of the government into the lives of her characters. To protect the government from rebels and the citizens from themselves, The Angels created The Eyes. The Eyes, similar to the Eyes of God would watch people through their daily lives, they could be anyone in the society. “I know better than to look the interpreter in the face. Most of the interpreters are Eyes, or so its sa...
In today’s society, we all are to follow the principles that come with America which is
she will not put up with how she is treated. She has the courage to
In The Handmaid’s Tale, much use is made of imagery; to enable the reader to create a more detailed mental picture of the novel’s action and also to intensify the emotive language used. In particular, Atwood uses many images involving flowers and plants.
Most of the Amendments are what some would call, Fair Weather laws. It is the
In The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are introduced to Offred, who is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. As this novel is
A woman’s power and privileges depend on which societal class she is in. In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale each group of women are each represented in a different way. The three classes of women from the novel are the Handmaids, the Marthas and the Wives. The ways in which the women are portrayed reflect their societal power and their privileges that they bestow.
A new society is created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any means necessary including torture and death. Margaret Atwood's book, A Handmaid's Tale, can be compared to the morning after a bad fight within an abusive relationship. Being surrounded by rules that must be obeyed because of being afraid of the torture that will be received. There are no other choices because there is control over what is done, who you see and talk to, and has taken you far away from your family. You have no money or way out. The new republic of Gilead takes it laws to an even higher level because these laws are said to be of God and by disobeying them you are disobeying him. People are already likely to do anything for their God especially when they live in fear of punishment or death. The republic of Gilead is created and maintains its power structure through the use of religion, laws that isolate people from communication to one another and their families, and the fear of punishment for disobeying the law.
The Eyes are the terrifying and aggressive secretive enforcers of the law. The Eyes symbolize God and how he is always watching, they are always watching as well. “I wonder who told them. It could have been a neighbour, watching our car pull out from the driveway in the morning, acting on a hunch, tipping them off for a gold star on someone’s list. It could even have been the man who got us the passports; why not get paid twice? Like them, even, to plant the passport forgers themselves, a net for the unwary. The Eyes of God run over all the earth.”(65). This symbolism is an important feature of the book because it creates fear for the citizens of Gilead. To the citizens it symbolizes a higher authority that is capable of doing great harm and is always watching. “We aren’t allowed inside the buildings anymore; but who would want to go in? Those buildings belong to the Eyes.” (166). The fear that the Eyes add to the story line reminds the reader how aggressive and evil the government of Gilead is, that the characters of the novel have such strong fear towards these people. From this the characters weaknesses are apparent. For example the main character Offred is a strong woman who does not express fear, though when you hear her talk about the Eyes you see a part of her weakness and fear peak through. In addition a feature that the Eyes bring to the novel is suspense. Whenever the characters see the van with the
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
Many of the principles of Gilead are based on Old Testament beliefs. Discuss Atwoods use of biblical allusions and their political significance in the novel.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”-Alice Walker. What this quote really means is that people are hopeless and they don’t realize on what they could do. They only focus on what’s going to happen next and about their safety, but they don’t notice that they are giving up their power to the government, leaving them powerless. Margaret Atwood examines power and peoples attempts to control each other. People in Gilead are viewed based on their social classes. This includes the Handmaids, Wives, Commanders, Aunts, Angles, Eyes, Martha’s, and the Econowives. It’s either they have power in their hands, or they don’t have power at all.
The Handmaid's Tale This is a futuristic novel that takes place in the northern part of the USA sometime in the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the oppressive and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. The regime demands high moral retribution and a virtuous lifestyle. The Bible is the guiding principle. As a result of the sexual freedom, free abortion and high increase of venereal diseases at the end of the twentieth century, many women, (and men also, but that is forbidden to say), are sterile. The women who are still fertile are recruited as Handmaids, and their only mission in life is to give birth to the offspring of their Commander, whose wife is infertile.
In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.
The Handmaid's Dystopia The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian tale about a world where unrealistic things take place. The events in the novel could never actually take place in our reality." This is what most people think and assume, but they"re wrong. Look at the world today and in the recent past, and there are not only many situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but places that have been and ARE Gileadean societies. We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy! Even today, there are places in the world where there is a startling similarity to this fictitious dystopia.
story, a story she could not have told if she was dead. It is also